After its world premiere at the Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2022, where it achieved mostly positive reviews, horror movie Smile (2022) has instantly become one of the most expected titles of the post-summer season.
The movie centers on Dr. Rose Cotter, who after witnessing a bizarre traumatic incident involving a patient starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.
This is the debut feature film of writer and director Parker Finn, who achieved international recognition with his awards-winner horror short film Laura Hasn’t Slept (2020).
The main cast in Smile (2022) is formed by Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey, Robin Weigert, Kal Penn, Judy Reyes, and Gillian Zinser.
Initially, Paramount originally made the film as a streaming film and planned to only premiere this film on Paramount+. But the film was screened for the test-screening audience and the scores were even higher than anticipated, prompting Paramount to give the film a theatrical release in the United States on September 30, 2022.
After the screening at the Fantastic Fest, the movie Smile (2022) was compared with other new classics of the genre like Final Destination (2000), The Ring (2002), Oculus (2013), and It Follows (2014). IndieWire stated “Smile (2022) navigates unhealed trauma through a supernatural lens and mischievous juxtaposition, despite feeling like a shadow of other stories. [..] (It) delivers a captivating and claustrophobic mental hellscape that will cause one to both grimace and grin”.
Smile (2022) is Rated R for strong violent content and grisly images, and language. Coinciding with the American theatrical release, the movie will also come out internationally on digital.
Watch here the official trailer for Smile (2022).
